Post by teleadm on Nov 29, 2019 10:57:37 GMT
Even if his name doesn't sound familiar, hopefully some of his movies sounds familiar. One of those director very little seems to have been written about, or his movies speaks for themselves. Though some of his movies were Oscar nominated in some category, he was never nominated himself.
David Miller 1909 - 1992
He was born in Patterson, New Jersey.
After leaving high school, Miller worked for the National Screen Service as a messenger boy.
At age 21 he was an assistant director at Columbia, but by the mid 1930s he moved over to MGM, who allowed him to direct a variety of short films, mainly sports themed. Two of his shorts went on to win Oscars, Penny Wisdom 1937 and Seeds of Destiny 1946, the latter was made for United States Department of War. Those Oscar went to the producers, not the director.
Normally when a short film director moves up the ladder to direct a feuture length film they are usually handed a low budged movie to test their skills, but in this case MGM handed Miller a big costly Technicolor outdoors western.
Billy the Kid 1941, a color remake of the 1930 film of the same name. It featured Robert Taylor as Billy and Brian Donlevy as a fictionalized version of Pat Garrett renamed "Jim Sherwood" in this film. The earlier version had been made in an experimental widescreen format.
Parts of the film were shot in Monument Valley. It co-starred Ian Hunter, Mary Howard, Gene Lockhart and Lon Chaney Jr.
Critics praised the Technicolor cinematography (Oscar nominated), but not the movie it self.
A very costly venture that only made a marginal profit.
Sunday Punch 1942, a sports comedy starring William Lundigan, Jean Rogers, Dan Dailey, Guy Kibbee, J. Carrol Naish and Leo Gorcey.
The routine of a group of fledgling boxers all living in Ma Galestrum's boarding house is interrupted when Ma allows her roving niece to move in...
Flying Tigers 1942, a black-and-white war film drama from Republic Pictures, it starred John Wayne, John Carroll, Anna Lee, Paul Kelly and Mae Clarke. It dramatizes the exploits of the American Volunteer Group (AVG), Americans already fighting the enemy in China prior to the U. S. entry into World War II. It is a wartime propaganda film that was well received by a 1940s audience looking for a patriotic "flagwaver". It was the first Republic film to make more than $1 million.
It was also Oscar nominated for best Special Effects, Music and Sound Recording.
Then there is a seven year leap till next feature length movie.
Top o' the Morning 1949, a romantic comedy about a singing insurance investigator who comes to Ireland to recover the stolen Blarney Stone—and romance the local policeman's daughter.
It starred Bing Crosby, Ann Blyth, Barry Fitzgerald and Hume Cronyn.
Since Bing starred in it, it made a healthy profit, regardless of what critics thought.
Love Happy 1949, a musical comedy starring The Marx Brothers, Vera-Ellen, Ilona Massey, Marion Hutton, Raymond Burr and a young Marilyn Monroe. It was the 13th and final feature film starring the Marx Brothers.
Said to have been made to help paying off some of Chico Marx's gambling debts, and produced by Mary Pickford.
Our Very Own 1950, a romantic drama starring Farley Granger, Ann Blyth, Jane Wyatt, Donald Cook, Ann Dvorak and Natalie Wood, for independent producer Samuel Goldwyn.
It's about a teenage girl who discovers, during a heated discussion with her sister, that she is adopted, and her search for her biological mother, finding romance on the way.
It was Oscar nominated for Best Sound.
Saturday's Hero 1951, a noirish sports drama that starred John Derek, Donna Reed, Sidney Blackmer and Alexander Knox.
High school football hero finds himself caught up in the world of big-time college athletics at a University in the 1950's. He must balance his desire to get an education with the high expectations of his coach and "benefactor," by whose grace he is attending the University.
Tagline: The lowdown on the "kept men" of that Saturday Afternoon Racket! The story of a boy who beat the body-buying system - and the girl who made him a man.
Sudden Fear 1952, a noir thriller about a successful woman who marries a murderous man. It starred Joan Crwaford, Jack Palance, Gloria Grahame and Bruce Bennett.
The movie was a sleeper at the box-office, making a huge profit for RKO.
In 1984, film noir historian Spencer Selby noted, "Undoubtedly one of the most stylish and refined woman-in-distress noirs".
Both Crawford and Palance were Oscar nominated, and so too was the Cinematography and Costume Design.
Beautiful Stranger aka Twist of Fate 1954, a British mystery noir that starred Ginger Rogers, Herbert Lom, Stanley Baker and Jacques Bergerac. It's about an actress living on the Riveria who becomes involved with a man who she learns could be a dangerous criminal.
It did poorly at the box-office and didn't help Ginger Rogers career.
Diane 1956, a historical costume drama in CinemaScope and Eastmancolor. It starred Lana Turner, Pedro Almendariz, Roger Moore, Marisa Pavan and Sir Cedric Hardwicke. In the sixteenth century, a noblewoman has a love affair with the French King.
It got neither good reviews or awoke much interest at the box-office, though the extremely lavish costumes designed by Walter Plunket got rave reviews.
It was Turner's last film under her longtime MGM contract and thus marked another stage in the decline of the old studio star system.
The Opposite Sex 1956, a musical remake of the classic The Women 1939, shot in Metrocolor and CinemaScope. The original movie only had women in the lead cast, while this movie did the "misscalculated mistake" with incorporating male roles, taking away the uniqueness of the original story.
It starred June Allyson, Joan Collins, Dolores Grey, Ann Southern, Ann Miller, Leslie Nielsen, Agnes Moorehead, Charlotte Greenwood and Joan Blondell.
The movie made a hefty loss.
What worked making a musical of an established classic with The Philadelphia Story into High Society, didn't work at all this time.
The Story of Esther Costello 1957, a Brithsh drama exposé about large scale fund-raisings and it's traps with sleezy promoters. It starred Joan Crawford, Rossano Brazzi, Heather Sears, Lee Patterson and Fay Compton.
William K. Zinsser in the New York Herald Tribune wrote, "It wouldn't be a Joan Crawford picture without plenty of anguish...And her fans will have their usual good time...this plot enables Miss Crawford to run a full-course dinner of dramatic moods, from loneliness to mother love, from pride in the girl to passion with her husband, and finally to smouldering rage...Somehow she pulls it off. This may not be your kind of movie but it is many women's kind of movie and our Joan is queen of the art form"
It made healthy bussiness too, especially in Britain.
David Miller, as producer, was nominated for a Golden Lion at The Venice Film Festival. Heather Sears won a BAFTA award.
Happy Anniversary 1959, a comedy based on a stage play, starring David Niven, Mitzi Gaynor, Carl Reiner and Patty Dule.
A happily married father of two. For his 13th wedding anniversary, he sneaks home with a gift for wife, a diamond brooch, and with a desire to have a romantic interlude, but his plans are interrupted all the time.
"Happy Anniversary" is also the title of a popular song with music written by Robert Allen and lyrics by Al Stillman, that was introduced in this film.
Midnight Lace 1960, an Eastmancolor mystery thriller starring Doris Day, Rex Harrison, John Gavin, Myrna Loy, Herbert Marshall and Roddy McDowall.
In London, a recently wed American woman's sanity comes into question when she claims to be the victim of a threatening stalker, with a voice in the fog.
It might not have pleased the critics, but it pleased the many many fans of Doris, and that is enough to make a healthy profit.
Irene Lentz' lavis costumes were Oscar Nominated.
Back Street 1961, an Eastmancolor drama that follows two lovers who have limited opportunities to get together because one of them is married.
It starred Susan Hayward, John Gavin, Vera Miles, Charles Drake, Virginia Grey and Reginald Gardiner.
One of producer Ross Hunter's many lush and commercially successfull remakes of older Universal movies.
Jean Louis' Costums Design was Oscar Nominated.
Lonely Are the Brave 1962, a drama western. It stars Kirk Douglas as cowboy Jack Burns, Gena Rowlands as his best friend's wife and Walter Matthau as a sheriff who sympathises with Burns but must do his job and chase him down. In interviews Douglas has mentioned this as his favorite film, among his own.
Miller directed the picture with a reverent and eloquent feeling for the landscape, complementing the story arc of a lone and principled individual tested by tragedy and the drive of his fiercely independent conscience.
Captain Newman M.D. 1963, a drama comedy starring Gregory Peck, Tony Curtis, Angie Dickinson, Eddie Albert, Bobby Darin and Robert Duvall.
The film is based on the 1961 novel by Leo Rosten. It was loosely based on the World War II experiences of Rosten's close friend Ralph Greenson, M.D., while Greenson was a captain in the Army Medical Corps supporting the U.S. Army Air Forces and stationed at Yuma Army Airfield in Yuma, Arizona. Greenson is well known for his work on "empathy" and was one of the first in his field to seriously associate posttraumatic stress disorder (years before that terminology was developed) with wartime experiences.
Bobby Darin was Oscra Nominated, so too was Sound and Writing.
Did commerciall well.
The Bells of Hell Go Ting-a-ling-a-ling 1966 a WWI war movie starring Gregory Peck, that would have depicted the air raid on the Zeppelin base at Friedrichshafen. After five week of shooting in the Swiss Alps the project was abandoned and was left unfinished.
Hammerhead 1968, a British-made action thriller about a criminal mastermind who attempts to steal NATO secrets, with an American agent hot on his trail. It starred Vince Edwards, Judy Geeson, Peter Vaughan, Diana Dors and Michael Bates.
A vehicle designed to make a movie star out of an established TV star.
Hail, Hero! 1969, a drama about college student during the Vietnam War who quits school and joins the Army in hopes of using love, not bullets, to combat the Viet Cong. It starred Michael Douglas in his feature film debut, with Arthur Kennedy, Teresa Wright, Peter Strauss and Charles Drake in other roles.
Though having actuallity at the time, in a retrospective review TV Guide called it a "talky, uninspired attempt to bring 60s-style 'relevance' to the screen"
Executive Action 1973, a conspiracy theory plot movie about the murder of JFK, that was too controversial for many cinemas to dare showing.
It starred Burt Lancaster, Robert Ryan, Will Geer, John Anderson and Ed Lauter.
The critics was, and still is, very diverse about this movie.
Bittersweet Love 1976, a romantic drama starring Lana Turner, Robert Lansing, Celeste Holm and Robert Alda. With Lana holding a secret that a recently married couple could be half-brother and sister.
Tagline: "There comes a time when each of us has a secret we dare not share"
That was David Miller's last movie made for cinemas, not the best way to end a career. Though he continued directing four made-for-TV movies, The Best Place to Be 1979, Love for Rent 1979, Goldie and the Boxer 1979 and Goldie and the Boxer Go to Hollywood 1981.
A very spotty career. What he did between the sometimes long leaps between movies, this OP has not been able to find out.
David Miller passed away in 1992, aged 82.
Thanks for watching!
David Miller 1909 - 1992
He was born in Patterson, New Jersey.
After leaving high school, Miller worked for the National Screen Service as a messenger boy.
At age 21 he was an assistant director at Columbia, but by the mid 1930s he moved over to MGM, who allowed him to direct a variety of short films, mainly sports themed. Two of his shorts went on to win Oscars, Penny Wisdom 1937 and Seeds of Destiny 1946, the latter was made for United States Department of War. Those Oscar went to the producers, not the director.
Normally when a short film director moves up the ladder to direct a feuture length film they are usually handed a low budged movie to test their skills, but in this case MGM handed Miller a big costly Technicolor outdoors western.
Billy the Kid 1941, a color remake of the 1930 film of the same name. It featured Robert Taylor as Billy and Brian Donlevy as a fictionalized version of Pat Garrett renamed "Jim Sherwood" in this film. The earlier version had been made in an experimental widescreen format.
Parts of the film were shot in Monument Valley. It co-starred Ian Hunter, Mary Howard, Gene Lockhart and Lon Chaney Jr.
Critics praised the Technicolor cinematography (Oscar nominated), but not the movie it self.
A very costly venture that only made a marginal profit.
Sunday Punch 1942, a sports comedy starring William Lundigan, Jean Rogers, Dan Dailey, Guy Kibbee, J. Carrol Naish and Leo Gorcey.
The routine of a group of fledgling boxers all living in Ma Galestrum's boarding house is interrupted when Ma allows her roving niece to move in...
Flying Tigers 1942, a black-and-white war film drama from Republic Pictures, it starred John Wayne, John Carroll, Anna Lee, Paul Kelly and Mae Clarke. It dramatizes the exploits of the American Volunteer Group (AVG), Americans already fighting the enemy in China prior to the U. S. entry into World War II. It is a wartime propaganda film that was well received by a 1940s audience looking for a patriotic "flagwaver". It was the first Republic film to make more than $1 million.
It was also Oscar nominated for best Special Effects, Music and Sound Recording.
Then there is a seven year leap till next feature length movie.
Top o' the Morning 1949, a romantic comedy about a singing insurance investigator who comes to Ireland to recover the stolen Blarney Stone—and romance the local policeman's daughter.
It starred Bing Crosby, Ann Blyth, Barry Fitzgerald and Hume Cronyn.
Since Bing starred in it, it made a healthy profit, regardless of what critics thought.
Love Happy 1949, a musical comedy starring The Marx Brothers, Vera-Ellen, Ilona Massey, Marion Hutton, Raymond Burr and a young Marilyn Monroe. It was the 13th and final feature film starring the Marx Brothers.
Said to have been made to help paying off some of Chico Marx's gambling debts, and produced by Mary Pickford.
Our Very Own 1950, a romantic drama starring Farley Granger, Ann Blyth, Jane Wyatt, Donald Cook, Ann Dvorak and Natalie Wood, for independent producer Samuel Goldwyn.
It's about a teenage girl who discovers, during a heated discussion with her sister, that she is adopted, and her search for her biological mother, finding romance on the way.
It was Oscar nominated for Best Sound.
Saturday's Hero 1951, a noirish sports drama that starred John Derek, Donna Reed, Sidney Blackmer and Alexander Knox.
High school football hero finds himself caught up in the world of big-time college athletics at a University in the 1950's. He must balance his desire to get an education with the high expectations of his coach and "benefactor," by whose grace he is attending the University.
Tagline: The lowdown on the "kept men" of that Saturday Afternoon Racket! The story of a boy who beat the body-buying system - and the girl who made him a man.
Sudden Fear 1952, a noir thriller about a successful woman who marries a murderous man. It starred Joan Crwaford, Jack Palance, Gloria Grahame and Bruce Bennett.
The movie was a sleeper at the box-office, making a huge profit for RKO.
In 1984, film noir historian Spencer Selby noted, "Undoubtedly one of the most stylish and refined woman-in-distress noirs".
Both Crawford and Palance were Oscar nominated, and so too was the Cinematography and Costume Design.
Beautiful Stranger aka Twist of Fate 1954, a British mystery noir that starred Ginger Rogers, Herbert Lom, Stanley Baker and Jacques Bergerac. It's about an actress living on the Riveria who becomes involved with a man who she learns could be a dangerous criminal.
It did poorly at the box-office and didn't help Ginger Rogers career.
Diane 1956, a historical costume drama in CinemaScope and Eastmancolor. It starred Lana Turner, Pedro Almendariz, Roger Moore, Marisa Pavan and Sir Cedric Hardwicke. In the sixteenth century, a noblewoman has a love affair with the French King.
It got neither good reviews or awoke much interest at the box-office, though the extremely lavish costumes designed by Walter Plunket got rave reviews.
It was Turner's last film under her longtime MGM contract and thus marked another stage in the decline of the old studio star system.
The Opposite Sex 1956, a musical remake of the classic The Women 1939, shot in Metrocolor and CinemaScope. The original movie only had women in the lead cast, while this movie did the "misscalculated mistake" with incorporating male roles, taking away the uniqueness of the original story.
It starred June Allyson, Joan Collins, Dolores Grey, Ann Southern, Ann Miller, Leslie Nielsen, Agnes Moorehead, Charlotte Greenwood and Joan Blondell.
The movie made a hefty loss.
What worked making a musical of an established classic with The Philadelphia Story into High Society, didn't work at all this time.
The Story of Esther Costello 1957, a Brithsh drama exposé about large scale fund-raisings and it's traps with sleezy promoters. It starred Joan Crawford, Rossano Brazzi, Heather Sears, Lee Patterson and Fay Compton.
William K. Zinsser in the New York Herald Tribune wrote, "It wouldn't be a Joan Crawford picture without plenty of anguish...And her fans will have their usual good time...this plot enables Miss Crawford to run a full-course dinner of dramatic moods, from loneliness to mother love, from pride in the girl to passion with her husband, and finally to smouldering rage...Somehow she pulls it off. This may not be your kind of movie but it is many women's kind of movie and our Joan is queen of the art form"
It made healthy bussiness too, especially in Britain.
David Miller, as producer, was nominated for a Golden Lion at The Venice Film Festival. Heather Sears won a BAFTA award.
Happy Anniversary 1959, a comedy based on a stage play, starring David Niven, Mitzi Gaynor, Carl Reiner and Patty Dule.
A happily married father of two. For his 13th wedding anniversary, he sneaks home with a gift for wife, a diamond brooch, and with a desire to have a romantic interlude, but his plans are interrupted all the time.
"Happy Anniversary" is also the title of a popular song with music written by Robert Allen and lyrics by Al Stillman, that was introduced in this film.
Midnight Lace 1960, an Eastmancolor mystery thriller starring Doris Day, Rex Harrison, John Gavin, Myrna Loy, Herbert Marshall and Roddy McDowall.
In London, a recently wed American woman's sanity comes into question when she claims to be the victim of a threatening stalker, with a voice in the fog.
It might not have pleased the critics, but it pleased the many many fans of Doris, and that is enough to make a healthy profit.
Irene Lentz' lavis costumes were Oscar Nominated.
Back Street 1961, an Eastmancolor drama that follows two lovers who have limited opportunities to get together because one of them is married.
It starred Susan Hayward, John Gavin, Vera Miles, Charles Drake, Virginia Grey and Reginald Gardiner.
One of producer Ross Hunter's many lush and commercially successfull remakes of older Universal movies.
Jean Louis' Costums Design was Oscar Nominated.
Lonely Are the Brave 1962, a drama western. It stars Kirk Douglas as cowboy Jack Burns, Gena Rowlands as his best friend's wife and Walter Matthau as a sheriff who sympathises with Burns but must do his job and chase him down. In interviews Douglas has mentioned this as his favorite film, among his own.
Miller directed the picture with a reverent and eloquent feeling for the landscape, complementing the story arc of a lone and principled individual tested by tragedy and the drive of his fiercely independent conscience.
Captain Newman M.D. 1963, a drama comedy starring Gregory Peck, Tony Curtis, Angie Dickinson, Eddie Albert, Bobby Darin and Robert Duvall.
The film is based on the 1961 novel by Leo Rosten. It was loosely based on the World War II experiences of Rosten's close friend Ralph Greenson, M.D., while Greenson was a captain in the Army Medical Corps supporting the U.S. Army Air Forces and stationed at Yuma Army Airfield in Yuma, Arizona. Greenson is well known for his work on "empathy" and was one of the first in his field to seriously associate posttraumatic stress disorder (years before that terminology was developed) with wartime experiences.
Bobby Darin was Oscra Nominated, so too was Sound and Writing.
Did commerciall well.
The Bells of Hell Go Ting-a-ling-a-ling 1966 a WWI war movie starring Gregory Peck, that would have depicted the air raid on the Zeppelin base at Friedrichshafen. After five week of shooting in the Swiss Alps the project was abandoned and was left unfinished.
Hammerhead 1968, a British-made action thriller about a criminal mastermind who attempts to steal NATO secrets, with an American agent hot on his trail. It starred Vince Edwards, Judy Geeson, Peter Vaughan, Diana Dors and Michael Bates.
A vehicle designed to make a movie star out of an established TV star.
Hail, Hero! 1969, a drama about college student during the Vietnam War who quits school and joins the Army in hopes of using love, not bullets, to combat the Viet Cong. It starred Michael Douglas in his feature film debut, with Arthur Kennedy, Teresa Wright, Peter Strauss and Charles Drake in other roles.
Though having actuallity at the time, in a retrospective review TV Guide called it a "talky, uninspired attempt to bring 60s-style 'relevance' to the screen"
Executive Action 1973, a conspiracy theory plot movie about the murder of JFK, that was too controversial for many cinemas to dare showing.
It starred Burt Lancaster, Robert Ryan, Will Geer, John Anderson and Ed Lauter.
The critics was, and still is, very diverse about this movie.
Bittersweet Love 1976, a romantic drama starring Lana Turner, Robert Lansing, Celeste Holm and Robert Alda. With Lana holding a secret that a recently married couple could be half-brother and sister.
Tagline: "There comes a time when each of us has a secret we dare not share"
That was David Miller's last movie made for cinemas, not the best way to end a career. Though he continued directing four made-for-TV movies, The Best Place to Be 1979, Love for Rent 1979, Goldie and the Boxer 1979 and Goldie and the Boxer Go to Hollywood 1981.
A very spotty career. What he did between the sometimes long leaps between movies, this OP has not been able to find out.
David Miller passed away in 1992, aged 82.
Thanks for watching!